A nonromance in four scenes
by zhyndia k
Summary: Events that don't seem to have a purpose do. Tanabata 2007 fic, IshiHime


**Title: **A non-romance in four scenes  
**Series: **Bleach  
**Characters: **Ishida and Orihime.  
**Summary: **Events that don't seem to have a purpose do.

_**1. Red Threads**_

Depending on who is asking and who is telling, there are three different stories about how Ishida met Orihime.

The one known by their classmates in Karakura High: Inoue Orihime and Ishida Uryuu meets like this: she is talking to Tatsuki about something that went "Pururun" and the melon-bean paste-pie she made as they walk down the corridor. He is going the opposite way. Orihime proceeds to slip on the floor, and coincidentally Ishida catches her up. In typical Ishida fashion, he brushes past her. She thanks his retreating back. He brushes aside a piece of red thread from her neck bow that snagged on his quincy bracelet when he saved her.

The second meeting is the one Orihime tells. Orihime enters the sewing club and find a quiet boy sitting in her favorite spot by the windows, where it's warm and the light is good. Ishida is introduced as a genius with all sorts of fastenings besides zippers, and Orihime is introduced as a genius with the needle and hemming. He keeps his eyes decorously on Inoue's face as they nod to each other over the yarns of Raggedy Ann red that he'd been using for his project. When Tatsuki asks her why this counts as their first meeting, when she is pretty sure it was Ishida who caught her up before, Orihime replies, in all innocence - but this is when we were introduced so it's just proper to say this was when we first met, right, Tatsuki-chan?

Their third meeting is the one Ishida doesn't tell anyone. Ishida sees Orihime before their high school opening ceremony. It is in a sewing shop while he was knuckles deep in the thread box in search of the right shade of blue for his new book bag. He is irritated; there is royal blue, ultramarine, and Prussian blue, but not Klein blue. As he is about to demand for the shop to stock it (he is, after all, a regular customer, he needs those spools even if he's the only one who really purchases them) he sees the shopkeeper talking to a girl with shining brown hair. She is holding a spool of pomegranate red, and he waits for her to leave before he asks for his thread.

"We have it reserved for you already," the shopkeeper tells Ishida, looking amused. He glances back at the door, and she adds, "Her story is just too sad."

Ishida doesn't reply, but the shopkeeper is used to his prickliness. "She is making a skirt, since red is her brother's favorite color. No matter that he's passed away years ago. What is the use if the dead can't see?"

And Ishida is about to reply, "Don't you see, it's the color that's significant. Pomegranate red, these are offerings for the dead!" But he stops. He doesn't know what she thinks, and frowns at the initial burst of pain in his chest. Instead he finishes his purchase with a soft, "Thank you," and leaves.

_**2. The rain that falls gently**_

Ishida has a habit of listening in conversations. He knows it's rude, but he always keeps half-an-ear open during free time or dismissal. That's how he finds out that azuki paste is Inoue's favorite cooking ingredient. That's also how he finds out about the amazing Don Kannonji (this with matching actions and a loud Bwohahahaha!) and his trick of splitting the upper and lower halves of Apollo chocolates.

And speaking of Apollo chocolates, Orihime is in lecture mode, talking about the sweet as they loitered in the classroom waiting for the rain to stop. Rain in the middle of May is not unusual. It is Ishida's and Rio's turn to clean up, but that has been long done, and now the girls are keeping each other company.

"You can't share Apollo among four people, or five people, and really, sharing it with people is impossible. Anyone who has a box of Apollo in his hand wants to hoard it. It was named after the Greek God of Truth you know."

Not that he had to pretend not to listen - Orihime and the girls are part of the liveliest group, barring Kurosaki's.

"Didn't he chase after a girl and turn her into a tree?" Rio, ever the geek, knows her mythology.

"Skirt chaser!" Chizuru says, irritated as always by talk of a guy getting a pretty girl. They laugh at the pot calling the kettle black.

"Ah, but it's no matter. It's Apollo, and the chocolates are wonderful. Oh, look, it's stopped raining, let's go."

There is no chorus of good-byes to Ishida when the girls leave, but Ishida is used to being ignored. Ishida opens his book bag and returns his notebook to its rightful place beside his closed umbrella. Ishida and an umbrella he has all but refused to use because he wants to stay and listen to Orihime talk.

Ishida is honest. On the way home he buys a box of Meiji Apollo chocolates to attempt Don Kannonji's trick of splitting them into half. There are thirty-six pieces of chocolate in that box of Apollo, and out of it Ishida failed to imitate the feat of the great Don Kannonji. A zero percentage of success.

A half-baked idea forms in his mind and is rejected in the span of time it takes him to lick the melting chocolate goop off his fingers. Using spiritrons to split them in half can't be considered cheating. This feat is godlike.

An act worthy of a god, he thinks, and after the conceit, he cleans his hands of the chocolate.

_**3. The fairytale that never was**_

Ishida and Orihime travels the length and breath of Seireitei in search of their captured princess. Princess is what Orihime calls Rukia while they run along. "We are like the invading army to save her from the guillotine. She is our Marie Antoinette!"

Ishida does not mention that no invading army came to the doomed queen's rescue, and Orihime's comparison is grim to his ears. But then Orihime adds, completely ignoring historical accuracy, "We are the musketeers, don't you see? We will save France from falling into ruin! We will save the world!"

"Not if you keep being that loud, Inoue-san," he mutters. Orihime looks at him with wide eyes, as if she can't think how Ishida-san can be so cruel as to mention how loud she was in public. A nerve on Ishida's forehead twitches. But the moment is actually light between them, and Ishida knows that Orihime is not doing this because she wants to save the world, but because she wants to chase after someone's elusive shadow.

And just like that Ishida knows he is lost. He thinks, "If anything happens, you can be our Queen, because who ever heard of a Queen that can knock the big idiot down with a mere punch?" But Rukia does so easily, and the idiot doesn't even act surprised, like it's expected.

Only when he sees how closely Ichigo holds her, how Ichigo kept fighting down the shinigami that shared her life and values, because they wanted to take her life away, does Ishida realize he has someone by his side, that he will fight for, tooth and claw, to save, to keep her safe.

But her eyes are to someone else, yet it does not matter. He is just pleased to remain at her side.

He does not think that one day, he will experience the same sharp pain in the gut when he hears a call that they had gotten her, taken her away, to the dark side of the moon.

Ichigo looks at him once, while they traveled the white sands. "You know, she'd be happy to see you here."

"It's not a matter of being pleased to see me here, she would be happy to see all of us, Kurosaki." Especially you, he thinks. But then Ichigo swats him at the back, like they are friends and allies when it is obviously not true.

"Huh. Well, guess she would. After all, we're all friends."

"What in the sentence, 'We can never be allies' do you not understand, Kurosaki?"

"The part that says, 'We cannot rescue the princess when she's in danger'," is his flippant reply, and Ishida fumes as they walk on to the white town in the the distance, because he can't say anything against that.

**_4. Wishes do come true_**

Everything is changed and yet life returns to normal. On the seventh of July of her seventeenth year Orihime finds boxes of Apollo chocolates in her mailbox wrapped in brown paper tied with red string. Both have notes written in precise writing taped to their covers. Strawberry is, "Hope" while Blueberry is, "Silence". Orihime understands, fingering the plastic wrapping, before she opens the box and pops a sweet into her mouth.

It has never tasted so bitter before, she thinks, and attributes the sudden film over her eyes to the bright sunset. Never mind it is raining, she thinks, whenever a lonely cowboy rides off on the never ending road it is always bright sunset. And then the phone rings, and Tatsuki shouts, " 'hime, where are you, we will be late for the festival!" and she leaves her sad thoughts at home, just as always.

Happy times outside, sad times inside. The pattern never changes, like the flower cascading from her yukata and kanzashi. Six-petaled flowers, and as they glittered she hears them as if speaking from a foggy distance, We're still here, yes we are. You'll never be lonely anymore.

"I will become a lonely alcoholic this way," she laughs to Tatsuki as they climb up the steps of the shrine. Tatsuki looks scandalized, while Chizuru takes the opportunity to cry out, "Oh, but we will make two lovely drunkards, 'hime?" before promptly getting punched in the face.

"Don't let the season get you down," Tatsuki says. "They'll all come back you know they will. It's the time for wishes to come true after all."

"I haven't written down a wish since we were kids, Tatsuki-chan."

"Maybe it's time to start wishing again."

"Maybe it is. I'll go wish what I wish for every year then. I've always wanted to get better at sewing." Orihime sidesteps as a tall stranger passes by their group without recognition. Her smile freezes for a moment, replaced by a thoughtful look.

"Or it might be time to make a new wish."

Ishida does not make wishes. He is too old, too world-weary to do something perfectly childish. Nevertheless, his grandfather always tell him he was too old for his age, so he decides to do something light-hearted every year. Tanabata wishes for one, going to shrine on New Year's for good luck, playing the go his grandfather had been fond of in the different shops. The go players think of him as their absent grandchildren, and though he thinks they cannot be a replacement for his grandfather, he thinks it might be as close as he can get him back.

They talk about reincarnation and philosophy over these stones - black and white, symbols of shinigami and quincy in a battle for perfect balance - and Ishida doesn't say anything about his views of the afterlife. They might think him mad, but they'd never tell him, they'll just talk in whispers around his very madness, when he is the only one who knows the truth of it all.

The dead has a place to live, very much like ours, only without electricity. They live in different alleys, and they are never hungry, they never age. They wear ridiculous yukata and are guarded by men in black, and when they die they are reborn again. He wants to say, Don't regret the life you live, it'll chain you down to this world, and then you will be hunted by the monsters you use to frighten your children to bed. If I can do anything to live your life less sadly, I will do it, the sooner you can get reborn again.

If he is ever going to be reborn, Ishida thinks, he would like to remain the same in all the essential parts, and maybe fight for someone else's redemption. He has done enough for his behalf, and it would be great to stand for someone else's sake. He thinks this as he writes his wish down for tanabata, but on his blue card - periwinkle, he corrects, precise as always - he has written down a request, that the red threads may never be cut, no matter how far the distance is in between.


End file.
